This Means War
by Jadeah
Summary: When Meat's little joke on Archer goes horribly wrong, he leaves Roach with the blame and a revenge bent Ghost after him. Everyone is soon to get involved in the prank war. Inspired by the other fic Prank War, just felt like doing one without OCs.
1. This Means War

Roach found himself walking down the hallway, soon to come across Meat, who was standing around the corner of the hall looking like he was trying not to laugh. This couldn't be good... Last time he was like this, Roach came to the unfortunate discovery of his boots glued to the ceiling. With him in them (don't ask, it's a LONG story)... What could he be planning this time?

"Meat, what are you-?"

"Shut up, Roach!" Meat hushed and peaked around the corner again seeing no one, he looked back to Roach. "I'm gonna get Archer. He still owes me money from that bet last month."

Roach showed no particular expression. Instead he waved Meat off and sighed, not looking. "You're obsessed. Oh, and by the way, Archer's coming."

"WHAT?" In that moment, Meat pulled the rope in his grip harder than he pulled anything in his life, not even sparring the victim a glance as paint rained down followed by a scream. A moment later, the scream was followed up by the man's enraged shouting.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL? WHO DID THIS?"

Never had Roach seen the color drain from Meat's face so fast. He hadn't spilled the paint on Archer, Roach had said that he was coming simply because he thought no one was. But he hadn't seen a now scarlet painted Ghost. Said brit was standing soaked in paint before tearing off his now opaque sunglasses and glaring every which way for the man responcible. Now if looks could kill, Roach and Meat would both be insinerated.

Ghost stormed towards them, leaving a trail of paint where he walked. "WHICH ONE OF YOU WANKERS DID THIS?" He snapped, gesturing to his now scarlet clothes.

Meat shouted out, "IT WAS ROACH!" Then bolted, leaving the Sergeant to face Ghost's wrath alone.

Now you're probably expecting him to of been pumbled. Well, he was even sure of that himself. But it didn't happen. Instead, Ghost had grabbed him by the shirt collar and growled out lowly, "This. Means. War."

In that moment, Roach was left to clean up the paint while Ghost cleaned himself up. But his mind was hardly on the red mess, it was more on what Ghost planned on doing to him. He'd deal with more training, but he couldn't coap with the idea of Ghost tearing him limb from limb.

"I'm so dead..." He murmered before putting his head in his hands. He needed to act quick, before Ghost had his way with him and possibly killed him.

* * *

><p>Ghost stormed into the showers and pulled off his mask, reveiling his relitively clean face, a ring of red around where his sunglasses and mask didn't cover. Stupid bug...<p>

"Ghost?"

He turned around to see MacTavish leaning against the wall, though at first he saw no emotion, a smirk came to play on his lips. A coy look only meant to aggitate him. And it was working.

"The bugger dropped a can of paint on me." He explained with exhasperation leaking in his voice. "And now, I'm going to get him back."

"Roach?" The Captain raised an eyebrow. "He's hardly the prank type."

"But he did!" Ghost snapped, still irritable from his humiliating treck across the barracks covered in wet, red paint. "Meat was even there with him!"

Now MacTavish laughed.

"What's so funny?" Clearly he didn't get it.

"Think about it." He chuckled. "If Meat was there with Roach, who do you think is more likely to have been responcible."

Ghost facepalmed, leaving a red handprint where his hand was. "I should've known... I'll get him back later. Now I've declared war on Roach."

"You can't be serious..." MacTavish breathed.

"If you will, Sir, you could join my side." Ghost then brought up. If he was going against Meat as well, he'd need SOMEONE to watch his back. Who better than his Captain?

"Don't even bother, Ghost." He answered. "I'm sticking out of this one."

Well it was he joins or he suffers Ghost's wrath as well. "Alright, I understand. You're just being a prat. Now come here!" In that moment he held his arms out, and MacTavish pushed from the wall and backed away from the second in command.

"Hold on, there's no reason to-."

"Just get over here."

"No, I'd rather not." The Captain reasoned. "You're still covered in paint."

Ghost grinned evilly before tackling the man and wrap his arms around him while the higher ranked tried to pry him off with little sucess. He let go when he figured that he coated him with enough paint.

MacTavish stared at the large red stains all over his once clean white tee shirt and the knees of his jeans for a long moment. Then he glared. "You've made a horrible mistake this time. Don't expect any mercy from me." And with that, he left, Ghost sighed heavily when he realized what his actions had brought him.

"Dammit... I'm the prat here..." He grumbled. "Now I have him on my arse..." He returned to the sink to find a sight he hadn't expected, his mask was missing, a red stain where it had sat on the sink proved of it's once being there. "CAPTAIN!" He then charged out to get his mask back from the man. He still held faint hopes that he could wash out the paint.

* * *

><p>In the shared room, Roach sat on his bunk staring at the floor. He had just finished cleaning up, and now he was stuck with Meat, Worm, and Scarecrow all staring at him curiously. Well Meat's look was more like he was amused by Roach's misery.<p>

"So what happened?" Scarecrow asked, taking note of the red stains on Roach's knees and shins from kneeling down to clean the paint.

Through narrowed eyes, he glared at him then at Meat. "Ask HIM." He spat, vemon leaking in his voice. "HE got me into a mess I'd rather not be in!"

Scarecrow and Worm both looked at Meat, who had made himself comfortable on the top bunk on the other side of the room. Meat chuckled. "So I let you take the slide for a mix up in a prank, big deal." How could he just wave this situation of is beyond them, because while he was acting like it was no big deal Roach was contridicting it with his gloom and anger.

"It IS a big deal!" Roach insisted, jumping to his feet with fists clenched at his sides. "YOU pinned the blame on me! Now Ghost wants to tear me to shreds!"

This obviously sparked the other twos' interests. Worm cut in before Roach could continue his tirade. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Ghost? Okay, what the fuck happened?"

Meat shrugged casually. "I was planning on dumping a ton of paint on Archer, he still owes me money after all, and Roach came in and told me he was coming. So I pulled the rope and I realized that he had me dump the paint on Ghost. So I gave him the blame for something that was his fault. So, Roach, quit acting like you're the victim here and get over it."

Roach could feel his face burning, and everyone could see it go red. "I AM THE VICTIM HERE YOU BASTARD!" Meat looked taken aback by the outburst, while Worm and Scarecrow were simply shocked. It wasn't like Roach to get so histarical over anything. "YOU LEFT ME WITH THE BLAME AND NOW GHOST WANTS TO KILL ME! HE SAID THAT IT MEANT WAR! NOW I'LL PROBABLY BE TORN TO RIBBONS AND ONE OF MY LUNGS BE HUNG UP ON THE FLAGPOLE!"

The antagonized man blinked. "You're exaggerating. Ghost didn't say that."

"HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?" Roach hissed. "YOU RAN OFF AS SOON AS YOU THREW ME UNDER THE BUS! HE DID SAY THAT! AND HE MEANT IT!"

Before Meat could put up an arguement, he was clocked by the first thing Roach could get his hands on, his boot. Whiel Meat fell backwards, Roach stormed out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind him. This left Meat on the floor rubbing his now bloody nose, and Scarecrow and Worm too dumbfounded to speak. What could they say? This was very much unlike Roach. But they weren't going to go after him just yet, they needed to let him cool down first. But they agreed on one thing in the silence of the room, they'd help him defend himself against Ghost and his prank onslaughter. It was the least they could do to help their friend.

Heck Worm could also talk Toad and Archer into helping as well as Scarecrow getting Ozone and Rook into the game as well. They needed all the help that they could get. Meat would have to hold his own.

This was only the beginning of the prank war.


	2. DAY 1, Scarecrow POV

**Got any prank ideas you guys wanna see in here? Let me know and you just might find your idea in this story. Contact me via the reviews or message me. You know where to go!  
>And without further delay, I give you the second chapter!<strong>

OPERATION LITTLEBIRD  
>00:08:23<br>"Scarecrow"

No one had seen Roach at all this morning, and he hadn't even come back to the dorm since his tyrade. I was starting to get worried. Now if I were the bug, where would I go when I think that Ghost is going to kill me and I want to avoid Meat and everyone else entirely? I sighed heavily.

Looks like I'm going to have to go look for Captain MacTavish.

Not that I WANTED to get the man envolved, cause I didn't, but Roach trusted him so I figured he might have just gone to talk to him. After all, the man seemed to understand him better than some of us. It only made sense. So I started towards the Captain's office.

It wasn't exactly an office, more like a little corner in his own room he cleared up to put a laptop and do his work there. I knocked on the door and heard the Scot permit entry from inside. So I turned the knob and stepped inside the room. There the man was, sitting in a chair at his desk with a hand on top of his closed black laptop; I could just make out the symbol to some soccor team that was partly covered by his index finger.

"Something wrong, Scarecrow?" He asked, reading my near blank expression. But I had been taking notice in the lack of Roach's presense. My hunch was wrong.

So I nodded. "Yes, Roach stormed off last night and no one's seen him since. I thought that he might've come here to talk with you, but it looks like I'm wrong."

"Is this about the prank war that I've been hearing about?" He questioned.

I nodded.

MacTavish seemed to ponder this a moment before he explained. "I haven't seen him. And it is worrying, he isn't one to run off. Maybe it's just because he's afraid of what Ghost might do, I found the man and he seemed eager to avenge his mask."

I tried my best to smile, but it didn't show as pleasant more out of worry I could barely hold it. "And do you know it was-?"

"Meat's fault?" He finished. "Yes I'm well aware of it. It's obvious when he's there. And Roach isn't the prank type anyways, so I found it hard to believe he'd pull something like that off."

"Can you help me find him?" I asked, trying not to fidget.

He nodded and stood. "Alright."

"Thanks." I said a little more relaxed. And with that we walked out of the room. But I noticed the look of careful observation imprinted in the man's features. He was trying to avoid something. Finally I came to ask as we walked outside, "Are you involved in this war?" Last time he was, it was horrible. He was able to get everyone and no one could touch him. After that, everyone swore never to get him involved in another one.

"Unfortunately." He answered single wordedly. Then when he realized that I wanted to know why, he added, "Ghost came to me in hopes that I'd help him get revenge, when I refused, he hugged me and got paint all over me. And believe me, it's not a pleasant experience trying to scrub that shite off your skin. My arms are still sore because of just trying to wash the paint off." I nodded in understanding and he continued. "So I told Ghost that he made a mistake by doing that and now I'm going to get him back."

"Did you choose a side?" I asked.

"I'm on no one's side." He stated. "I just want to get Ghost back for ruining my shirt and all the paint."

"But you could help so much in keeping Roach from being killed." I insisted.

He stopped and turned to me, "Now look. I know you just want to help him, but having me in your group isn't a good idea. I work for no one when it comes to this."

"But-!"

"But nothing. I'm serious when I say that I will do what it takes to end this before it gets out of hand, but for now, I'm not choosing sides. Now lets just get Roach."

There was no point arguing when he made up his mind, I knew. So I didn't further press my point and continued looking for Roach.

It was a while before we found him. Maybe a few hours. He was curled up in a ball up a tree and refused to get down, almost like a fearful cat. So I had to climb up and get him. When I reached him, he started to fight me relentlessly while he shouted at me for giving him away. Finally I managed to push him off the branch when I realized how stupid a mistake that was.

Roach crashed down through the branches screaming bloody murder before he was caught by MacTavish at the bottom. Breathing heavily he looked like a small child as he clung to the man in fear of falling again. When eh was put down on the ground, he was trembling and his words barely came out even.

"W-why did you do that?" He snapped at me as I dropped down from the tree.

"Why did you hide away all night?" I sent back. "I and Worm were worried that you might've hurt yourself and couldn't get back."

"I was fine until you showed up!" He insisted before running away from me, but MacTavish easily grabbed him by the back of his shirt before he was able to get farther than a couple of feet. He fought vainly before smacking the man's hand off. Big mistake. MacTavish grabbed his wrist in his grip and held it tightly. I knew just by the pained look on Roach's face.

"Calm down, will yah?" He told the younger. "I get that Ghost's got you scared but you've got to face him and not run away. Hiding in a tree isn't going to save you from anything."

Roach pulled his wrist free and started to run back towards the barracks without another word. I figured that he would just go back and hide under the bed or something, so I went after him. MacTavish followed more slowly, taking his time.

I lost him for a moment, and I whipped around in circles trying to figure out where the hell he could've gone. Then I saw him, laying in a crumpled heap on the ground and Ghost holding a pump action squirtgun to Meat's face while the latter was backed up against a wall. I almost felt like tackling Ghost, but I instead ran for Roach, pulling the smaller away as Ghost continued to keep Meat at gunpoint.

Roach looked up at me dazed, from the bump on his head, I could tell that someone, or something, hit him. So while I pulled him away I could hear Meat's fast chatter as he tried to avoid being sprayed by whatever it was in the squirtgun. Ghost seemed to be listening too! Which lead to him finally lowering the gun and holding a hand out. Meat accepted it with a look of relief before they turned towards me and Roach.

I was definately in trouble.

Meat held up a few water balloons he had been concealing while Ghost took aim, and like a bat outta hell, I picked up Roach and ran towards the infirmery, I needed to be sure that the bump wasn't too serious. Luckily it wasn't, all that was needed to be done was put some ice on it. So with that taken care of, I brought Roach back to our room, and locked the door behind me to be sure no one could get in.

When there was a knock on the door, I froze. Roach was too out of it to notice.

"Who's there?" I questioned as I pulled a paintball gun out from under my bed.

"Dude, it's me. Worm. I've got Archer and Toad with me."

"How do I know you aren't Meat?" I asked, stepping closer.

"Does Meat know that you keep a handstitched hankerchief in you pocket everywhere you go because you think it's lucky?"

Yup, that was Worm alright.

I opened the door and let him, Toad, and Archer in. Worm had a giant wet spot on his back while Toad's hair was soaked and the water drenched his shoulders, the lower part of Archer's pant leg was darker than the rest. I could guess that Ghost hadn't missed with his squirtgun.

"He and Meat ambushed us." Worm explained. "I mean really, what the hell? I thought he and Ghost were against each other here."

"I thought so too." I told him. "But I saw Meat talk Ghost into joining him, and that they could dominate in this prank war together better than separate."

Archer shook his head, "Then it isn't safe to let him in here."

Everyone looked to him as to explain, and he continued.

"If we are to survive this war, then we can't separate, even for a moment. We need to plan ahead and avoid being hit by Meat and Ghost."

"There are only five of us." Toad added. "And two of them. We can win."

"Not exactly..." Worm disagreed. "I tried to talk to Ozone and Rook, see if they would join our side, but they said that Ghost had reached them first. And I also tried to get Pharaoh in as well, he said that he was brought into Meat's ranks before he hit me with a smoke bomb and left."

"So it's pretty much even." I concluded.

"And they have, argueably, one of the best pranksters on base." Archer put in. "All we have is a couple of snipers, and a demolistion specialist."

"That's all we need." I said with a grin.

Behind us, we heard a rustle of fabric, and so we turned to Roach sit up and stare at us. "And I thought I was alone in this. Thanks guys."

Worm held out his hand, palm towards the floor, "Together."

I placed my hand on top of his, "Together."

This was followed up by Archer and Toad mimicing the action. And followed by Roach. The younger smiled, "We're in this one together."

"Lets get to work." I added.

"BREAK!" We all said in unisession as we pushed our hands downwards and back to our sides.

Toad paced towards the door and made sure it was locked, it was. Then he returned to the rest of us with an idea. "I know how we can avoid them breaking in and sabatging us." He glanced to the door as though he could see through it to be sure no one on the other side was listening in. "Come closer so I can tell you guys."

We all huttled in close and listened intently. This was where we work together and win this war.


	3. DAY 1, Archer POV

OPPORATION NO-ENTRY  
>00:18:23<br>"Archer"

I suppressed a sneeze as dust from the air duct tickled the insides of my nostrils. Behind me, Toad tapped my heel as a sign he was still right behind me. How we got into the airduct was simple, we found the grate on the ceiling of Worm's shared room and pulled it off by standing on a chair. Now Toad and I were on a mission to get into our room this way, lock the door and get anything we could need there to bring back to our main headquarters (Roach, Worm, Scarecrow, and Meat's room).

Moving with trained stealth, we didn't disturb the occupants of the rooms below, sure we passed over Ghost's room, where we saw him jolting something down in a notebook, but bothering with them wasn't our mission. And we didn't get distracted.

When we reached our room, I held a finger over my lips as a gesture to be quiet. Down in the room below, I saw Ozone sitting in a chair, not looking our way. I popped the grate off and placed it in front of me before I crawled down into the top half of the bunk bed below, which was only a few feet of space at best, I am always hitting my head on the ceiling in the morning. I held my hand up and Toad placed a thick roll of duck tape in my palm.

With that, I nimbly and soundlessly slipped off the bunk bed and crept up behind Ozone. "Sorry 'bout this, mate." I told him. He jumped nearly three feet into the air before I managed to pull off a vulcan neckpinch on him, knocking him unconscious. And with that, I slapped some duck tape over his mouth, wrapped his hands together, his ankles to the legs of the chair, and used the rest to wrap around his chest and midsection to the back of the chair. He wouldn't be going anywhere.

I moved him outside of the room, setting the chair out in the hall for everyone to see before rushing back inside the room and locking the door behind me. With no one else in the room, I could move at my own pace, collecting a couple of laptops, a dozen sets of walkie talkies (the nice headset kind that Ghost has, I've kept a few for another situation like this), a few paintball guns, a few squirtguns, and our cellphones. All of this was passed up to Toad so he could put it into a box he had brought with him so we could move the stuff back to our HQ.

On top of that, I snagged a few blankets and pillows, 'cause it was clear someone would be sleeping on the floor. Before I left, I made triply sure it was locked by seriously jamming it into the doorframe and pulling the dresser in front of it. These things you'd have to push when outside the room to open and pull when inside.

By the time Toad and I had crawled back, we rigged the vents with an alarm system made out of a camera and an old motion sensor meant to reconize some tags. The thing would go off if someone crawled through to get into the straight tunnel of vents that led from our HQ to my room without the special beacon we'd be attatching to our belts. Any intruder would be sprayed with that gas you find at the denist, nonletal, but effective. The only difference with this gas and the kind at the denist is that it took less to make someone drowsy. A quick spray was all we needed.

Now you understand why we had the extra laptops, we needed SOMETHING to operate the system.

We reached HQ and placed the cardboard box on the bunk before landing down on the bunk after it. Roach looked up an smiled when he saw us. Dark eyes shimmering with nervousness and eagerness.

"Good, you made it." He greeted. "How'd it go? Do we have an extra space?"

"Yeah." Toad answered, climbing down with the box of equipment. "We've also raided the place of the laptops and everything we might need besides food."

"I'll work on that issue soon." Roach replied, opening the box. "Good job here, I can guess you set up the security system as well?"

"Done." I said as I dropped to the floor. "No one's going to bust into our headquarters. There's only one way in, and one way out now. And only we can access it."

"Unless they steal our beacons." Toad put in lowly. "Not that they need to know that."

Scarecrow, who was poking through some of Meat's things for anything of use to them (all he found so far was his cellphone, a few bungee cords, a few packs of water balloons, buckets of paint, some pepperspray, a couple twenty packs of water, and a lot of trailmix). "Lucky us Meat is the prank master. The prank master who hides his equipment under his bed."

Worm laughed. "I knew he was an idiot."

"Nah, just ignorant. Should've figured we'd take control of his room and raid his stuff." I corrected.

Roach grinned evilily. "I've got an idea."

At first, I thought he must be crazy with this plan, but it had to work right? It sounded very well thought out.

* * *

><p>It was much later, nearly midnight when we were setting up this prank. I tried to keep back a cackle as I krazyglued Meat's cellphone to the wall, grinning in satifation when I couldn't pry it off, then writing on the wall with washable paint, "MEAT'S CELL. YOU'RE NEXT GHOST."<p>

Not far, Roach had finished his part of the trap and we climbed up into the vents and crawled back to HQ to tell Toad that he was on overwatch for now. The prank begins when Meat springs the trap. All we had to do was wait for that to come. In the meantime, I was helping Scarecrow fill the waterballoons and Roach pulled on his headset and got on the laptop to let us know when the trap was sprung. Worm was getting some rest, he'd take over for Toad and a few hours on overwatch.

Until then, we could only wait.

* * *

><p>MEANWHILE<p>

Meat came running into Ghost's room, not bothering to knock. "They got Ozone! They taped him down to a chair!"

Ghost shot up in an instant. "No one was with him?"

"No one." Meat sighed. "I thought I told Rook to stick with him, but I guess he's back in his room. He said something about it being late."

"No." Ghost pushed past Meat and ran down towards Rook's quarters, opening the door to find the man taped to the floor with a blindfold on and a gag in his mouth. The Austrailian was screaming, which was muffled by the cloth in his mouth. Ghost pulled it out of his mouth and the Ausy gasped in air while he removed the blindfold. Rook appeared relieved to see Ghost.

"I'm sorry..."

"Who did this?" He asked harshly. He needed to know now.

Rook appeared pained just thinking about. "He was a blur... I could barely see him..."

"WHO DID THIS?" He asked again.

"...MacTavish..."

He took a breath before releasing the man's limbs from the floor. And there, right where Rook had been laying, had "YOU'RE NEXT GHOST!" scrawled on the floor in the Captain's handwriting. Cold seeped into his limbs, making him feel frozen with fear. MacTavish was probably the ULTIMATE prankster here. He was cunning, and unlike Meat, waited for his moment to strike. He'd take down a lone enemy if given the chance. And if Ozone was also alone and taped to his chair, he could assume that it was the Captain's doing as well.

This was just turning out to be the beginning of this prank war.


	4. DAY 2, Worm POV

**This first prank here is the idea of AnonymouseXI! So just to let you guys know. Hope you like and thanks Anony! ^_^**

OPERATION MEAT SLAB  
>01:07:13<br>"Worm"

I was sitting in the vents, keeping an eye on the trap set specificaly for Meat. He'd be coming. Oh he'd be coming very soon. He'd do just about anything to get his cellphone back. And now I was relying on that here. Then I saw him. Unsuspecting of anything, he walked down the hall towards the wall which his cellphone was glued to and looked at it in horror, then humiliation.

He was about to step closer to pull it out when he sprung the trap! Five bungee cables whipped upwards, snagging onto Meat's clothing and pulling him upwards, and there he was hanging by his waist (as most of the cables had caught on his belt) and flailing around uselessly. I could distictly hear him through all the curses let out an asperated, "Fuuuuuuuuuck..."

I tapped into our private comm system. "The beef is at the butchers. I repeat, the beef is at the butchers. Move in for slaughter."

"Copy that." Roach responded.

In a matter of moments, my team had arrived except for Toad (who was standing guard at HQ) with water balloons. I felt a sinister smile creep to my face as I was well aware of the contents of the balloons.

"C-can we talk about this-?" Meat asked worried, but he never got the chance.

"FIRE!" Roach ordered, and with that, they started to throw the water balloons at Meat, pelting him. With each balloon came an explosion of paint, the contents of the balloon splattering across the victim, leaving him stunned and looking like something puked a few parriots on him.

Once my team was out of balloons to throw, they left before anyone could come and get them. Seeing a mission accomplished, I crawled back to HQ.

* * *

><p>Roach ran beside Scarecrow, looking in every direction to make sure no one would take him by surprise. Then he came to a skittering hault as he found himself face to mask with Ghost! He took two steps back and reached for his paintball gun strapped to his hip.<p>

"Heeeeello, bug." Ghost sneered in a menising way. "I hope you know that you brought this one on yourself." And with that, he pulled out a water bottle and dropped it on the floor and ran, nothing happened.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Archer questioned with a scratch of his head.

Roach looked his way, "I have noooo i-"

BOOM!

Everyone jolted, and Roach found himself feeling a trickle of something down his cheek that he ignored. Now, there was just the shredded remains of a water bottle at their feet. That didn't seem to be a big deal, right?

"Does anyone else feel tired?" Scarecrow asked, looking drowsy.

Now that he had come to mention it, Roach could've sworn he felt lightheaded, his fingers tingling as they started to grow heavy. Blinking at first he had to push his mind just a little further to comprehend what had really happened. "Ghost... We need to get back... to HQ..."

"Good to see my little surprise worked."

Everyone looked to Ghost, who had pulled his mask up and slapped on a gas mask in it's place. _But? What? Why? _Roach could barely drag his thoughts through the thick soup his mind was he KNEW what Ghost did.

"You've been busy, I see." Ghost went on. "But you'd have to be crazy to think you would've managed to get to me. It's only unfortunate Meat was just dumb enough to fall for you prank, and Ozone barely had a chance to do a thing. But I think I know how to settle the score." He then held out a hair dryer, aiming right at them before switching it on. In a puff of powder, the victims were covered in whatever Ghost had rigged to be released by the hair dryer. After that he was about to run when he came colliding with MacTavish as he turned.

Roach gazed up as he leaned against the wall for support against his growing dizziness as the Captain stared down at his XO without giving much away.

"I'll take it you've been busy." He finally stated. Whatever it was that was in the air clearly had no effect on him. Or at least it didn't seem like it. "I wonder where you managed to get the nituous oxide."

"Same place they got theirs. Under a prankster's bed." Ghost answered.

So Ghost knew about their security system and how it worked? That CAN'T be good. He tapped into his team's comm system, "Worm... Toad... Ghost knows about the security system..."

"WHAT?" Worm sounded mortified and shocked.

"We'll just have to fix it then." Toad responded to Roach. "Worm, get back here and take on overwatch while I fix the system."

"I'm on my way."

Roach stared at the mic attatched to the headset for a long second. "No one broke in...?"

"No. Everything's quiet here. I was also going through Meat's stuff and found a few more things we could use." Toad told him.

Then he saw MacTavish rip the gasmask off of Ghost's face. For the moment they could see his face, he held some sort of horror. "NO!"

"You drop laughing gas in the hall then you have to breath it to." The Captain said solidly. How was he not being effected? Was he even breathing?

Ghost then tried to run, to which MacTavish tripped him. He crashed on the floor and the Scot grabbed him by the back of the shirt while he unlatched a nailgun from his belt. Dispite the masked man's struggle, he found himself nailed tot he wall.

"I'll just leave you to stew over this for a while." MacTavish told him with a smirk before walking away.

Ghost appeared desperate, "OZONE! ROOK! ROYCE! SOMEONE!" No use, he wouldn't be getting out of there without a hammer to pry out those nails.

By now the gas Ghost had leaked into the room was starting to get to Roach and his team. Uncoordinated and stumbling, they retreated for the HQ. Practically banging on the door out of the inability to knock right. When Worm opened the door, they came crashing in, Archer kicking the door shut behind him for Worm to lock.

* * *

><p>I double checked the door to be sure there would be no intruders. "What the hell happened out there?"<p>

Roach, who had practically crawled onto his bunk and hugged his pillow, murmered something I could barely hear. After another moment, he looked up at me with unfocused eyes. "Ghost... knew we were coming... He ambushed us... Used laughing gas..."

The only one who seemed remotely closest to their senses was Scarecrow. And now he was scratching his neck and head. "What was that stuff that Ghost covered us with? It's irritating."

Archer looked up and shrugged a little. His voice holding a heavier accent than what he usually had. "'ow the bloody 'ell should I know? If you're itching so much then it's probably itching powder..."

Roach was relentlessly raking his fingers across his scalp. "Fucking bastard. Itching powder? Where the hell could he 've gotten that from?" It was hard tell whether he was talking about Archer or Ghost. I'd ask but it would be strange.

"Trying to tear the skin off your head there?" I asked with a chuckle while Roach took a a second to slow his scratching to glare at me.

That was when Scarecrow shot up out of his seat on the bunk but he stumbled forward as he was still trying to overcome the effects of the laughing gas. "Ghost has Royce on his team now!"

We all looked at one another with worry.

"We're going to need to catch up then." I stated flatly. "Roach? Can I go out and find us some more willing members?"

"Go ahead..." Roach replied, hand a blur as he was scratching behind his ear. "We'll need the extra hands around here. Take Scarecrow with you so you two can watch each others' backs."

"Will do." I told him as I picked up a paintball gun. "Let's go, Scarecrow."

Archer laughed.

I looked at him oddly, the Brit usually wasn't one to laugh.

Still laughing he tried to explain. "It rhymes!" Then he added, "Like somethin' you'd 'ear at a football game! 'LETS GO, SCARECROW! LET'S GO!'" (Football=Soccor; Just an FYI.)

Now if I didn't know better, I could've sworn he was drunk. I could only say at the least is that he had been more effected by the gas than the other two, who were both groggy and starting to shrug off the effects. Hopefully when I get back, he'll be his old self again. Childish, playful Archer is down right creepy. I'm actually starting to miss his groggy tone and sarcastic humor.

Scarecrow and I walked out and went to to another room in the barracks. I knocked on the door a couple of times and it was answered by Rocket and Chemo.

"What?" Rocket looked tired and unamused. "If this is about this new prank war, then I'm not interested." It's understandable why he wouldn't (last time there was one he was covered in honey and a bee hive was disturbed so the bees all swarmed him. He had some nasty stings), but I need to convince him otherwise, it was important.

Chemo just didn't seem to care. I knew better. Dispite what he appeared, I knew he was reminding himself of what happened to him last time (similiarly, he was coated in grape jelly while he was asleep and layed on top of a few ant hills, NEVER had I seen a man scream so high).

"I'll be honest with you," I assured hastily. "It is about the prank war, but you can't just sit around and do nothing."

"I can, and I will." Rocket told him harshly as he tried to slam the door in our faces. Scarecrow, however, stopped it with his foot.

Meeting Rocket's glare with an understanding expression, Scarecrow said more calmly than I had, "I know that you don't want to have the same thing that happened to you repeat itself, but don't you want to get back at Meat for that? He did, after all, make you have to go through the pain of having individual stingers pulled out of your skin because of his prank."

Rocket looked down for a moment, somehow Scarecrow had broken down his defencive wall when I couldn't. "Look, man, it's not that I hate you or anything, but I can't join in this time. And you are partly right about it." Before either one of us could ask, he ushered us inside and closed the door. "The other part is because I'd be going against Royce. I can't do that. He's practically my brother."

"If Royce decided to side with Meat, when he knew what he did to you last time, then that's his fault." I said mildly. "But wouldn't you want to get even with Meat like he decerves? He's picking out new victims. And he's convinced Ghost to side with him to do so. I and Scarecrow started this team so we could protect Roach from a revenge bent second in command. If you don't understand that, then fine..."

Chemo then took his turn to speak, though he wasn't much a talker, he was blunt as a baseball bat. "You're saying that you're weak in other words, and need our help. Not saying that I'm opposed to helping, I'm just more worry about what Meat will do this time. The bastard isn't really very merciful in his pranks."

"And he also gave the two of you a phobia of bugs." Scarecrow pointed out. "I think that handing Meat's ass over to him now is very much justified."

"And what about MacTavish?" Rocket asked. "He's UNTOUCHABLE and arguably a better prankster than Meat."

I hid a grin while Scarecrow explained. "I talked to him about it. He's going after Ghost for tackle hugging him while covered in wet paint. Aside from that, he's very much a neutral party in this. He hasn't tried anything on us yet, so as long as we don't get in his way, we should be fine."

Chemo seemed to ponder this while Rocket stared at us.

"You can also teach Royce a lesson on not abandoning you, Rocket." I added.

"And you still owe me for pulling those bee stingers out of you." Scarecrow put in as well. "And those things were everywhere. Same for you Chemo, I helped with putting on that cream to help with the ant bites when you asked. Do this, if not to get back at Meat, then because you owe me."

That seemed to work, Rocket nodded. "Fine. I'll join in. But if I have to deal with bugs, then forget it."

"Same here." Chemo said quietly.

I smiled and stood. "Good. Get your laptops, cellphones, and anything else you'll need so we can get to our headquarters. Be quick, I'm not sure how long it will take before Meat or someone unnails Ghost from the wall."

"He was nailed to the wall?" Chemo exclaimed, nearly dropping his laptop in the process.

"Yeah." Scarecrow answered. "Ghost dropped some laughing gas and he pulled Ghost's gas mask off and bolted him tot he wall with a nail gun."

We all laughed as we gathered up the things Rocket and Chemo were bringing with them before walking out and returning to HQ. This could be where the fun begins.

**Got us a long chapter here. So yeah, now Ghost brought Royce into his loop while Roach has Chemo and Rocket in his. Things are about to get interesting. Send me your prank ideas in the reviews and see if I add them into the story. Keep those reviews coming and I'll be back soon with the next chapter!**


	5. DAY 3, Soap POV

**Thanks LionTalon for sending me this new idea. Keep the ideas coming guys!**

OPERATION ROTTY  
>03:04:21<br>"Soap"

I tapped the dashboard of the car immpatiently as I waited for a man I was meeting to show. We agreed on 4:30 in the morning for a good reason. I don't get caught by Ghost or Roach, and he can sneak away from his job real quick. Seeing as he was a truck driver.

That's when the actual car part of a semi parked at the side of the road. The white paint finish seemed almost pale blue to me in the dark of early morning. Then a man hopped out of the drivers seat, having to climb down a small ladder to reach the pavement without injury. I easily reconized him and got out of my jeep and started towards him.

When he turned and saw me, a smile spread across his face. I almost immediantly took note of the bite marks on his hand as he spread his arms to hug me. But I stepped back and tried to make it clear I'd rather not be touched. Ghost has me jumpy thanks to his paint smearing embrace. This man didn't seem hurt at all, but now his face grew serious. "You sure you want to do this one, John? Rex is a little crazy today."

I grinned. "Don't worry about it, Matt. Is he asleep right now?"

"Yeah, he was through most of the car ride." Matt answered.

"Perfect."

Matt appeared worried. "Look, John, I know you want to get back at your Simon friend here, but aren't you scared of dogs or something?"

Meeting his gaze I nodded. "I was ever since that insident when we were boys, you know that."

Long story short, I was at a beach one summer when I twelve or so and a guy who was walking his dog let go of the leash so it could run around. Right away that thing knocked me over and was barking and scraping at me with it's paws. One time it had it managed to claw me across the eye. Lucky me Matt was there to pull it off of me and return it to it's owner. I was too petrified to really say anything, so I was crying for the most part. My mom had to take me to the hospital and I got stitches across my eye where the dog had scratched me. I was actually lucky my eye still worked. And everyone thought I was badass after it too. Some people spread rumors saying that I fought off a dozen of those dogs by myself and only one got a lucky hit. I wasn't quick to disspell the rumors either. I also because good friends with Matt since that. The only down side was that I had a phobia of dogs. And as soon as I was getting better, when I was an FNG, more dogs come in and attack me and make my fear solid as stone.

"I suppose." Matt sighed. Then he clapped his hands together and smiled again, "Well, best get this show on the road. You wanna meet him before we get to your base?"

"It couldn't hurt." I responded slowly, nervousness coming to scrape at me inside. If this thing comes jumping out and lunging at me so help me god...

Matt pulled a dog crate from the passenger seat, then passed it to me. Though at first I was surprised by how much it weighed, because I thought that a small animal wouldn't be so heavy, the weight in itself didn't bother my body too much. I was used to it. I lug around maybe seventy pounds of equipment on missions at the least. About a hundred and ten didn't bother me.

"Don't open the cage," Matt advised. "Just put Rex in your car, alright? I'll drive right behind you."

I knitted my eyebrows, "And you don't keep him in your car because...?"

"Because I think that a nice car ride should be enough to get you two introduced. Don't be such a big baby, John. It's just a dog."

"Well dogs still left me scarred." I grumbled, carrying the crate to my jeep and placing it in the backseat. Matt came over and pushed it into the passanger seat, and I shot him and glance in questioning.

"So he can see you is all." He told me. "Don't worry, he can't get out of his cage. No thumbs."

"And if he does manage to open it?" I shot him a sceptical look.

"Then those will be my last words as dogs are opening my bedroom door during a canine uprising." He laughed before walking back to the semi. With a heavy sigh I looked back at Rex and then climbed into the driver seat.

* * *

><p>When we got to base, we parked and Matt helped with moving the crate to the reck room. I had an idea and all I needed to do was place a camera and keep Matt around so that Rex didn't leave the room. He opened the dog cage when I closed the door and flipped on the lights. It was only five in the morning after all.<p>

Now I could see this Rottweiler Matt owned. A big dog, with a short pelt that was glossy like black ice hit being struck bt sunlight in the winter and eyes glittering amber. I easily could see the markings of redish brown across it's face, chest, and paws. I visibly stiffened.

Matt laughed. "Don't worry, John. I've trained Rex here very well. He's perfectly tame."

"But I thought you said he could scare off a bear." I pointed out.

"He can. And he only gets crazy around people he doesn't know." Matt answered. "Why else would I have you driver with him? You'll get to see him be a lunitic when your friends come in."

I nodded and set up a video camera aiming at the door. No one should be able to even get in with Rex on their heels. With that set I got the feed to load to my laptop so I could watch from the closet in the back while Matt's dog did the work. Matt of course would be behind the bookshelf, ready to let his dog know when to stay.

* * *

><p>It was a couple hours later when the first person came in. Meat. Immediantly Rex, who was laying on the beat up couch, jumped up and started barking and chasing the man. And right away, Meat was running out of the room and slamming the door shut behind him. On the camera, I could see Matt cracking up while Rex walked in circles a couple of times before settling in the rug. I rewinded just to see Meat's face, mouth agape in the "Oh" in "OH FUCK!" it was priceless.<p>

* * *

><p>Ghost looked up as Meat came running into his room screaming. Since he was locked out of his room he was splitting with him. Now he hadn't expected Meat to hide under one of the beds trembling.<p>

"Is it behind me?" He asked shakily, not moving from his "safe" spot under the bed.

"Is what?" Royce asked, rolling his eyes, unconserned. He was sitting on the other side other room.

"That HUGE DOG!" Meat answered, histarically. "That thing almost ate my ass off!"

Royce facepalmed. "We don't have dogs on base, you tard. Aren't you suppose to be trying to prank Roach and his team?"

Meat now poked his head out from under the bed. "I'm not kidding! That thing was as big as MacTavish! It would have killed me if I didn't run!"

Now Ghost cut in before Meat could continue. "Probably another prank, where is this dog so we can get rid of it?"

Meat swallowed loudly. "In the reck room. But you'd have to be nuts to go in there!"

Ghost stood, and Royce followed suit. "Then consiter us both crazy. Come on Royce."

"YOU'RE MAKING A BIG MISTAKE!" Meat called out after them as they left.

Ghost walked straight to the reck room and turned the knob. Ready for whatever was inside. Or he thought he was. He was alittle stunned when he first walked in, and saw the dog was curled up on the floor. Upon hearing him enter, it's head poked up and it glared at them before it snarled, flashing white teeth at them. Royce took a step back while Ghost remained still.

"It's just a little pooch, what's Meat talking about there being a big scary dog in here?" Ghost stated before he took a step into the room. The dog got up now, pose solid and battle ready. It barked loudly at him as a warning, one he didn't seem to be effected by. Royce however had shyed out of the room. Ghost looked at him then back at the dog, "It's harmless. Quit being such a prat, Royce."

Another step in. And that's what set the dog off, Ghost had no time to react, while Royce was running out screaming bloody murder! The dog knocked him right over, and he landed flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him while the dog got on top of him paws planted on his chest. The weight was all put there, preventing Ghost from getting enough air, and so he desperately pushed at the dog's paws, trying to get it off of him. No matter how much he tried, the dog would just bark at him, snarling white teeth right in his face and reposition it's paws even higher up his chest until it was putting weight on his collarbone now.

Surprisingly he hadn't screamed yet. He held his nerve enough to avoid that. He resorted to kicking the dog off of him and running. The thing had landed with a thud and shot right up again; now it was right on his heels! Before he could escape, it lunged and it's snapping jaws bit his rear and nipped his legs a couple of times before knocking him over so he landed face first to the wood floor. Now he screamed. Probably loud enough for the whole base to hear it, and scare all the birds off in the process.

The dog bit at his head, teeth catching the fabric of his mask before it tore it's head back and pulled it off Ghost's head; reveiling his shocked and terrified face. Paws still planted on his back, the dog didn't move from that spot, like the unfortunate second in command was the winnings in a carnival game. With the weight on him, pressing right down on his shoulder blades, he couldn't escape this time. And he didn't dare turn himself over again, seeing as that worked so well last time.

His relief was infinate when Ozone and Rook came running in to help him. But it was only short lived. The dog barked loudly at them, daring them to come closer, and Ozone was out right away. And when Rook tried to get closer, the dog got off of Ghost and chased him out the door. The distraction was only enough for Ghost to get up to his feet, weak kneed and shaking heavily. He could taste blood in his mouth, but he'd have to check later. Now he needed to get the hell out!

He was about to run right out when the dog returned and chased after him, knocking him right over and started to drag him away from the door by the shirt collor, causing him to involentarily gag as he yelled at the top of his lungs for help. Now he found himself pulled into a corner near a tan dog crate, laying on his side while the god stood over him, glaring at the door fiercely. He was just a toy, he realized. And the dog wasn't about to let someone take it away. Sighing heavily, he laid his head down on his forearm and shut his eyes, just waiting for it to be over.

It felt like only a few minuted, when it was maybe a couple of hours, when Ghost cracked his eyes open just enough to see the dog having setted in front of him, chewing on something. It took a second to reconize through the slopper that darkened the fabric his mask in the canine's jaws. As he was about to sit up, the dog growled at him and laid back down again, unwilling to get his butt chewed off.

He then smelled blood, and when he crinkled his nose in reaction to it the skin underneath felt crackly. He slowly touched the area to find that it was crusted with dry blood from his face hitting the floor eariler. His chin also felt the same, maybe he just split his lip or something.

_It's now or never, Simon... _He told himself. Then he slowly got up to a sit. The dog glared at him, but he dared to try crawling away. Big mistake.

The dog barked at him a few times as he kept trying to move away before it ludged at him, rolling him over and getting on top of him again! He had enough, he NEEDED to get out of here. So Ghost pushed the dog off of him once more and scrambled to his feet, hammered by a relentless wave of dizziness. It was all that was needed to happen to him for the dog to nip at his ankles again and sprint in front of him to knock him over. He somersulted forward and the dog pressed it's paws back on his shoulders all it's weight on him again.

Now if he were younger, he might of cried. Maybe. But he was hardened by many years of military experience. And soldiers don't cry. Or at least he tried to tell himself that as he was choking on sobs and tasted blood from his now yet-again-bleeding nose.

"How's it feel down there?" He heard a familiar voice ask behind him.

Ghost groaned, putting his forehead to the floor. "Fuck off..."

"If you don't want to get out of this situation, then fine." MacTavish responded. "You can lay on the floor all day."

"N-no! Please let me out of here!" Ghost pleaded. Oh how low he had sunk.

He could here a chuckle then footsteps. Then he found his face lifed up by a pair of fingers under his chin. He came face to face with MacTavish, the Scot's icy blue eyes twinkling with amusement. "I think I'll just let you stew in this one for a little while longer, mate. Have fun with your new friend there."

The dog barked, almost as if to laugh at the joke. Ghost groaned. This DEMON was NOT his FRIEND. And he'd get out somehow. He flipped himself over and pushed the dog off of him, adreniline pumping in his veins as he heard furosious barking on his heels as he raced down the hall. Need to hide! Need to hide! He went straight to the first door he could find and fittled with the knob. Locked!

"Who is it?" That was Toad!

"Lemme in!" Ghost shouted at them. "You bloody wankers! A dog's chasing me!"

"What's the password?" Another, Scarecrow asked.

"Fuuuuu-!" Ghost looked over his shoulder to see the dog right there! Ready to pounce on him! He pounded on the door in desperation. "OPEN THE BLOODY DOOR!"

"Sorry, that's not it!" Worm replied through the door.

There was no point arguing any longer, Ghost ran just as the dog lundged at him. Barely missing him. He could feel the teeth graze the skin on his legs as the dog tried to nip him, and he only pushed himself to go faster. He needed to escape this thing! And he needed to escape NOW!

"Rex! Down!"

Just then he realized that the dog had stopped running on command, but he wasn't quick enough to figure this out before he had run straight into a wall with a sickly thud. Everything was a blur from there.

* * *

><p>Matt and I caught up to find Rex sitting calmly on the floor near Ghost, who was laying on the floor dazed by the wall. The one the wall was a man shaped indent with cracks from impact spiderwebbing away from the dent itself. I blinked in amazement as I realized that Ghost had been running too fast to slow down before he crashed into the wall. Now here are my options, feel guilty about it now and bring him to the infirmery to be sure he was alright, or not and walk away. Since I figured I put him through enough today, I picked the former.<p>

Rex looked over his shoulder at us, giving us this expression that seemed to be of innocence, like he was just playing or something. Now because I don't trust dogs, or like them, and am afraid by them, I didn't truly buy the look. But Matt crouched down and started to talk to the dog like he was a person. I ignored it and went straight to Ghost.

The man was laying there in a crippled heap, face paler than I remember, and was at an absence of his mask. Now I had seen the thing on the floor, covered in slobber, and decided I'd return it to him. But since he ran himself right into a wall, I could do that later. I picked him up and carried him to the infirmery.

Believe me, it was a trip explaining what happened to the medic, he was just shocked by all the scratches and bruises and the broken nose. Matt even decided to stay a little bit to be sure that Rex's main victim wasn't too badly injuried. In the end, they had to rebreak his nose to get rid of the tilt in which it set the first time, and they thought he probably bled out a cup of blood just through his nose alone. On top of that he was covered in bruises, found some bite marks on his ass (which I and Matt had a good time laughing about that for the next half hour), there were scratches on the backs of his legs, and they thought he might have a minor concussion. Way to go me. I just brutilized my second in command! I don't think that it was entirely worth it, he did, after all, only hug me while covered in wet paint.

That's just the thing. I DID feel guilty about getting him this beat up in one prank. And Matt of course felt a little bad also, he was afraid that we might have gave Ghost a new phobia of dogs. Or at least Rex.

Before he left, he had pulled a small disk from a device on Rex's collar and handed it to me. I blinked in surprise and asked, "What's this?"

"It's a disk with video feed from Rex's collar cam." He answered. "I figured you might want to see all of the prank, since your camera couldn't catch that last chase or some of the events in the reck room." He then sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't stop Rex sooner. It's my fault your friend is so beat up. I even had the chance."

"It's alright." I assured when it really wasn't, I'd beat myself up too if I was in the same position. "At least you did at all. I think we might've put Ghost in his place."

"I hope he doesn't hold a grudge." Matt sighed. "Goodbye, John. And Email me the film, will yah? I'd like to see what happened as a whole as well."

And with that, Matt left and I casted Ghost a glance before leaving the infirmery. But not before I told the medic to say that I was sorry. I figured that next time I see Ghost, I'll be on the receiving end of a prank.

**Oh my god... this prank... took... sooooooooo long... to write... But I had fun! I'm not complaining! And don't worry about Ghost, he'll be back before you know it! :D**


	6. DAY 4, Sort of Ghost POV

**I'd like to thank The Crafty Imp for this chapter. Imp PMed me with all these prank ideas I could use, and I most definately will.**

OPERATION FIELD DAY  
>04:05:41<br>"Ghost"

No more funny business. After what MacTavish did, I needed to get back, regain what little sense of pride I had left. And I had the perfect idea. One which I was reserving just for him. But until I could pull it, I would need to gather more information on his movement. Which requires time spent in observation in an air vent. I had Meat on that for me while I took Rook to help with our latest prank on the bug and his team.

I also just managed to pass getting out of the infirmery, and my body was sore as shit from that stupid dog. I tried not to move all too much, but this had to be done.

It took a few minutes to pick the lock to their door, but we came to another issue. They had something blocking the door from the inside. Cursing under my breath, I looked over my options. I could push on the door and see where it could get me, get something to demolish it, take my chances in the vents (which we knew we rigged up with alarms and cameras), or I could try climbing through the window outside.

Looks like I'll be climbing through a window then.

Rook and I went outside and around to the window. On the way, we spotted Archer getting something from his room then climb back into the air vents. So his room was a supply room? Good to know. We arrived at Roach's window and peaked inside to see only Scarecrow awake and typing away on a laptop.

"We'll have to take Scarecrow out before he wakes up the rest of them." I told Rook, then opened the window to slip in as silent as night. Thankfully, the man wasn't looking my way, or really seemed to notice my break in entry. I came in close and pressed my fingers into his neck in a sleeper hold, causing him to fall unconscious. I let go and his head went down on the desk, appearing as though he fell asleep as he was working. "Sweet dreams..."

I then turned back to Rook to see him climbing in.

"Alright, help me grab Roach. We need to get out before anyone wakes up." I instructed, grabbing Roach from under his arms. Rook took hold of his ankles and we carried him to the window, where we ran into a snag. Getting him out of it. "Bollocks. This isn't gonna work."

Rook merely grunted. Then he looked back to the window again. "I've got an idea. But we can't drop Roach."

"We'd wake him up if we did." I retorted. "What's your plan."

"I'm going to put down Roach's ankles so I can climb out, when I get out, pass him through the window and I'll carry him on my back."

"I hope this works." I sighed while Rook put down Roach's ankles.

"It will. Just don't let him hit the windowsill."

Since Roach was all entirely that heavy, or as heavy as others here, it was somewhat easy to work him through the window. I closed it behind us before we got moving. Now all that was being dragged was his feet, as Rook had pulled him onto his back and held onto his arms. I watched the sergeant's head lull around as he was still fast asleep. Actually, he's a relitively quiet sleeper. He didn't say anything in his sleep (unlike most of us do), he didn't snore (unlike 98% of the population here), and he didn't even make a noise as protest towards the few times Rook had to readjust his grip (unlike practically all of us here).

When we reached the field at the top of the hill our base sat on, we put Roach down and caught our breath. Below was a nice feild, blanketed in a morning mist as the sky was bright scarlet and orange in the sunrise. Down there I could see sometimes a farmer with his sheep, letting them graze. I smiled a little under my mask and stood up again.

"Sorry 'bout this, mate." I apollogized despite Roach not being able to hear me, then lightly kicked him down the slope. We watched him tumble down as we strolled behind, needing to make sure he wasn't hurt when he rolled down. Thankfully he was fine, so Rook and I left him outside while we walked back to the base.

I wondered how Meat was doing on gathering intel on MacTavish.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile with Meat, he found himself about to follow his Captain into the messhall. But he noticed one thing, when the only time the man turned, and Meat hid at the corner to avoid being seen, he had flash a knowing grin then proceed to walk. But he thought nothing of it and continued to follow him.<p>

He reached for the knob and grabbed it in his hand.

ZAP!

"Fuck!" Meat shouted, jumping back as he shook his hand around to regain feeling in it. He stared at the knob in horror, before he realized that MavTavish must have rigged it to shock him or something. But he couldn't have done it so fast, he had only been in there for maybe half a minute. "What the fuck, Captian?" He grumbled.

And that brought him to conclude that the man probably was leading him on this entire time. He sighed heavily and realized that Ghost wouldn't be happy with this.

* * *

><p><em>A few hours later with Roach...<em>

He groaned sorly as he realized that his back was killing him, and he felt a few tugs on his clothes. Finally managing to blink his dark eyes open, they were heavy with exhaustion, he found himself blinded by sunlight.

"Ugh... what the bloody hell's...?"

Then his eyes adjusted and he found himself staring right back at a sheep, which was chewing on a piece of fabric. He looked at himself to realize that the sleeve was torn off his thermal undershirt. He scrambled backwards to get away from the animal as he cursed under his breath. What the hell? How did he even get in this field, he begun to wonder. Then the answer came to him like he was hit by a bus.

"GHOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!" He screamed, causing all the thirty-some-odd sheep to start running scared.

* * *

><p>Another hour later, it had been a bit since Roach's team noticed his disappearence. At first they thought he went to the bathroom, then they thought he went to take a shower, then they begun to worry. They tried to call him, but his cell phone was in the room, so they were all startled by the tune to Led Zeppelin's <em>In The Evening<em> playing when Toad attempted to call him up.

"Where the hell could he have gone?" Scarecrow wondered. "I hope he's okay."

That was when Worm poked in from the vent, they had sent him to search that way. "I found Roach! I found him!"

"Is he alright?" Toad asked.

"Fine." Worm answered as he fell into the room, Roach came dropping in right behind him. His sleeve was missing, he was covered in grass stains, and there were scratches here and there, but that aside he seemed unharmed. "He told me he woke up in the field at the bottom of the hill. And that he thinks Ghost might have something to do with it."

"How could he have broken in?" Archer asked, then his pale green eyes wided. "Check the window!"

Scarecrow went straight to it and looked at the latch. "It's unlocked. He might have just climbed in this way."

"Lock it. And go to the supply room and lock that on too." Roach advised, sitting down. "Weren't you awake Scarecrow? I thought you were on watch."

"I was..." He sighed, turning away from the window. "I know that I was watching the camera feed one minute, then the next I woke up with you missing."

"Probably knocked you out then." Worm guessed.

Rocket merely sighed as he shuffled through a small first aid kit to get at the worst of Roach's scratches. There were a few that actually were kind of nasty, but it was nothing a little cleaning and a bandage couldn't help. "We need to be on our toes."

"We'll have to be more careful as well." Chemo added.

This prank brought on a new feeling of no security. They would have to work a lot harder to get back at Ghost, and avoid another blow to their group.

That's when they heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Worm asked through the door.

"Poet. Can I come in?" He asked.

Everyone knew Poet, he was usually very quiet and honest to a fault. But he could be humorous when he wanted to be, making jokes about others and his own flaws, only funny because they were true. The main reason he got his callsign was because his journal fell into the wrong hands (Meat) and everyone got a look at all the poems he wrote, and he was also a big fan of Robert Frost.

"No, sorry, mate." Archer replied. "But I and Worm will meet you outside the barracks if that's okay."

"Sure." The man answered through the door.

The two came outside, and were soon met by Poet. They knew the man was different, for as long as they knew him. Now here the man stood, his average build didn't set him apart, but he was a little obsessive to keep his face covered like Ghost was. He bore a plain tan mask most of the time. And sometimes his pale blue-green gaze felt like it could pass right through you.

Today however, he was beat up. His mask pulled off his face to show a deep scar from his earlobe to his nostril, splitting both where it passed. No one ever really got the chance to see it, so now that the two were able to see it, it was kind of shocking. So yeah, he was all bashed up; had bruises on his face and arms, a few cuts, he stood awkwardly on his left ankle, some blue and yellow paint staining his clothes, but what was scary was seeing the man's arm hanging rather limply at his side.

"Shite, what happened?" Archer asked.

Poet looked down, eyes shadowed. "Ozone... Pharaoh, and Royce. They ambushed me with paintball guns and chased me into the trails... I tripped and fell into a big ditch."

To this, Worm put a hand on his shoulder, and pulled his hand away when Poet whinced at the touch. "Why didn't you see Doc? I'm sure he'd patch you up."

Now Poet sighed. "I didn't because I'm worried... what if he's with them?"

"Doc has to remain neutral." Archer assured. "For the sake of everyone."

"But what if he hasn't?" Poet shot back. "I don't want to get myself in any worse shape because I trusted him."

As chances of getting Poet to a medic seemed to slim, Worm asked, "So why did you come to us for?"

"Help." Poet stated. "I need to get back at Ozone and Royce, and I know you guys are going against them. If you'll have me, then I would like to join you."

Worm looked to Archer, and the sniper sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. But see a medic now, we'll come with you if it helps."

Poet nodded and followed the two towards the infirmery. As they were walking, Archer called back HQ and told them about their possible new member. How he was in bad shape, and the new member of Ghost's team. It made all the difference knowing these things.

According to Doc, the fall was bad enough to sprain Poet's ankle and dislocate his arm. So Archer had to help with keeping the man still while his arm was popped back in its socket. He'd need to rest it for the time being, but it'd get better. As for his ankle, he needed to stay off it.

This war was only going to get worse as it went.

**Yup, new guy to each team. And yes, Poet and Pharaoh are legit TF members. Just minor random callsigns though. I thought that it'd be nice to bring Poet in, cause I think that anyone would want some revenge for the damage he got in that prank. And Pharaoh was just the first guy I could think of to put with Ghost.  
>Now before you guys get into a debate on my use of random callsigns, I'd like to point out that Rocket is also random. Just more commonly found so we like to think that he's not. So there you go.<strong>


End file.
